Running with Scissors: B-

"Running With Scissors" could have come off as little more than 70's kitsch. Worse, it could have seemed like another celebrity, in this case memoirist Augusten Burroughs, trying to cash in on their fame. The story he's selling? Nuerotic mom Dierdre (the ever marvelous Annette Benning) sells a 14-yr old Augusten (Joseph Cross) to her shrink: the manipulating, unhinged Dr. Finch (Brian Cox). What saves this movie from falling into a pool of self-pity is wierdness. Ryan Murphy, the writer-director-producer, is the creator of Nip/Tuck so he knows a thing of two about wierd. He turns Finch's whole family, from wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh) to daughters Hope (Gywneth Paltrow) and Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood) into walking caricatures. Hilarious, dark, and brazen caricatures every one. Then what prevents the movie from being one-note? Every character is floating on hidden currents of depression and oppresion, sentimentality and intelligence. Augusten navigates everyone of these different characters with an understanding outlook. Maybe that is where he gains his razor wit from: the ability to cock an eyebrow at even the strangest of things. Still the movie is unavoidably and frustratingly unpredictable, no matter what Murphy was aiming for. He has a great cast to work with and Jill Clayburgh turns in the greatest supporting work so far this year while Annette Benning steals the picture with ease. Kudos for revealing a side of Gywneth Paltrow that we haven't seen since her wonderful turn in "Shakespeare In Love". By adding dimension to dementia Murphy managed to turn a comedy of eccentricities into a character-study on bizzarre. The comedy may have been as good but the drama is much more interesting.